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Tue Jul 23,11:29 Pm Et . By Jim Abrams, Associated Press
Writer
WASHINGTON - Courting a presidential veto, the U.S. House voted to lift
restrictions on travel to Cuba that have been in place for more than four
decades. The House also voted to remove hurdles on the sale of food and medicine
to Cuba and lift the caps on money that Cuban-Americans can send back to
relatives in Cuba.
On a 262-167 vote late Tuesday night, lawmakers approved a measure to end
government obstacles to American tourists visiting Cuba. "This is all about
freedom," said Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, sponsor of the amendment.
"Our government shouldn't tell us where to travel and where not to travel."
The vote on the Flake provision came after the House rejected, 247-182, a
measure that would have set tough conditions — including proof that Cuba
was not developing a biological weapons — before American tourists could
travel to Cuba.
The House also passed the Flake language last year, but it was never taken
up by the Senate.
"Americans can travel to North Korea and Iran, two-thirds of the axis
of evil, but not to Cuba," said Democrat William Delahunt. "That makes
no sense, I would suggest."
The Cuba debate dominated action on a dlrs 18.5 billion spending bill to
fund programs for the Treasury Department, the White House and other agencies in
fiscal year 2003. Another amendment by Republican Rep. Jerry removed hurdles to
the sale of food and medicine to Cuba.
A second Flake measure removed the limit, now dlrs 1,200 a year, on what
Cuban-Americans can send to their families in Cuba. That passed 251-177.
The most far-reaching attempt to reverse the decades-old policy of isolating
Castro's Cuba, an amendment by Democrat Charles Rangel to end the economic
embargo, was defeated, but by a narrow 226-204.
Rangel, a strong proponent of lifting sanctions on Cuba, said politics in
Florida, where President George W. Bush's brother Jeb is governor, is a big
reason the United States continues to isolate Cuba. "Don't allow your local
politics to influence what's in our national interest," he said.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a version of the Treasury
spending bill that includes an end to travel restrictions.
The White House, in a statement, said the president would be urged to veto
the spending bill if it contains an end to the travel ban. "Lifting the
sanctions now would provide a helping hand to a desperate and repressive regime,"
it said.
On Monday, Otto Reich, head of the State Department's Western Hemisphere
affairs bureau, said American tourism would only give President Fidel Castro
greater access to dollars.
"When he's had hard currency, he's used it to support terrorist or
other anti-American or anti-Western democracy activities," he said in an
interview with The Associated Press.
The bill is H.R. 5120.
On the Net: Congress:
http://thomas.loc.gov
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